The Powertool Shed

Internet marketing is a different ball game altogether when
compared to traditional marketing. A brick and mortar store
employs salespersons to guide and advise its customers. No such
equivalent of a salesperson exists for an online store. This
could be one of the reasons why people shy away from online
stores.

Given these circumstances, it is of vital importance that your
web store should be as interactive as possible. An interactive
website makes your visitors feel more comfortable and increases
your chances of making a sale. A well designed website is the
first step to make your visitor comfortable. Enough has already
been said about not choosing flashy colours or having excessive
graphics. I will now elaborate on the importance of having a
feedback form in your website.

Every site will invariably contain a “Contact Us” section.
Information usually present in this section includes the
business name, e-mail address, physical address, telephone
numbers etc. But what is missing in many websites is a feedback
form. Consider a scenario where your visitor has a query and
wishes to contact you. If you don’t have a feedback form, your
visitor will most likely choose to e-mail you. There are
numerous intervening steps that your visitor has to perform
before he can e-mail. Such steps like opening his/her e-mail
program, logging in etc. are distractions and your visitor’s
attention is easily diminished. Moreover if your potential
client is on a public computer he/she may not have access to
his/her e-mail and it is extremely unlikely that he will
remember and contact you once he/she gets back to his/her
computer.

All this can be avoided by having a simple feedback form in the
“Contact Us” section of your website. Your visitor won’t even be
leaving your site when he/she fills up your form. The very
nature of forms makes it easy for you to collect information
from your visitor. For example, if your visitor requires more
information about a particular product that you are selling,
he/she can choose it from a drop-down box listing all your
products and then type his/her query. Consider the alternative:
if you didn’t have a feedback form in your website, your visitor
would have to type your product name in the e-mail and then type
the query - more pain to your user.

The very fact that feedback forms have so many advantages may
lead you to believe that they are very hard to implement. You
would be surprised to know that they are one of the simplest
things to have. Forms consist of very simple HTML and there are
numerous tutorials available on the web for creating them. You
also need a program/script to process the form and a simple
query in your favourite search engine would find many such
scripts. A simpler method would be to sign up for a remotely
hosted form processing service so that all your form processing
needs can be outsourced. You will find that the entire process
takes about 10-15 minutes or lesser and you can have a feedback
form up and running!

Now that I have shown you that it is so simple to have a
feedback form and there are numerous advantages associated with
it, there is no reason for you not to have one!

Although it may not be practical to put a dollar-sign value on an e-mail address there are many financially-savvy reasons to start collecting e-mail addresses if you haven’t already begun. If you have, keep reading for a few more tips on e-mail address collection at the end of this article.

Communicating by e-mail has a number of benefits:

1.Quick response — You’ll be able to measure the effectiveness of your message in about 48 hours, which also means if you are asking for donations to a non-profit organization or selling something online you’ll have money in-hand sooner than you would with direct mail.

2.Learn something — A content strategy that tracks the recipient’s activity within the message will teach you something about their interests.

3.More affordable — E-mail allows you to communicate for pennies per message instead of the dollars per message it costs to send direct mail.

4.Better results — Response rates to e-mail communications are often better than traditional direct mail.

5.Segment & strategize — The technology available to deliver thousands of e-mail messages at a time also enables you to segment groups and target specific groups of people with a message just for them.

6.It’s the culture — Most professionals who work at a desk every day (and many who don’t) are accustomed to using e-mail as a regular form of communication. According to the 2004 Pew Internet & American Life Project, 93% of online Americans use e-mail.

The e-mail addresses you have already collected, just like mailing addresses, are most valuable when they belong to the people who are connected and informed participants in your organization. Many organizations who consider “buying” an e-mail list will soon learn that their money will be wasted on strangers because their best prospects are the ones who are already acquainted with the good work you do. Therefore, it is worth the effort to cultivate your current list and do all you can to acquire their e-mail addresses and their permission to communicate with them by e-mail.

How to collect e-mail addresses:

1. Provide a subscription form on the front page of your website and then give them something to subscribe to: an e-mail newsletter, weekly tips, articles, resources, etc.

2. Remind people to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter in the signature of every person-to-person e-mail message you send out. Have every employee and volunteer do the same.

3. Instruct your staff and volunteers to keep this “top of mind” — ALWAYS ask for an e-mail address: in person, on incoming and outgoing phone calls, visitors, events, etc.

4. Include a line for “e-mail address” on every return-reply mailing, including event RSVPs.

5. Determine a method for collection ANYTIME you are face-to-face with donors. Don’t forget events that have volunteer sign-in sheets, raffle ticket sales or silent auction bids/purchases.

6. Implement a “forward-to-a-friend” strategy and consider offering an incentive for people who send multiple forwards.

7. Avoid being accused of spam — be sure to share your privacy policy with an assurance that you will not sell or share their information and, by all means, ask their permission to contact themthrough e-mail.

Merritt Olsen is a freelance writer and marketing consultant specializing in online and e-mail marketing. Need unique content for your e-mail newsletter that you can’t find here? Merritt has the experience and the savvy to write about a variety of topics and can be reached through www.tomorrowsdonor.com.

Copyright © 2004 Merritt Olsen & The Pursuant Group. Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your website so long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided to www.pursuantgroup.com.

Here’s the issue: you photograph a car for the manufacturer in 2004 and
register the photo with U.S. Copyright Office. In 2005, the car maker
produces the same car except with a different style of wheels. The client
asks you to shoot only the new wheels and add them to the original
photo using Photoshop. The new photo then will be distributed. Do you
need to register the new photograph to obtain full statutory copyright
protection? You do if it would qualify as a derivative work.

As the owner of a copyright, you have complete and exclusive control to
do a variety of things to your photograph, including the right to prepare
derivative works based on the original image. But when you alter a
work, it’s a judgment call as to whether it constitutes a derivative work or
is only a minor variation of the original work.

A derivative work is one that is based on one or more earlier works.
Derivative works include editorial revisions, annotations or other
modifications. A derivative work must be different enough from the
original to be regarded a new work - in other words, it must contain
some substantial, not merely trivial, originality. Making minor changes or
additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not make it a new
version for copyright purposes.

One of the tests to decide whether the new work is a derivative work is
whether the new material is original and copyrightable in itself. Note
that, for reasons not covered here, the standard of originality is higher
for derivative works than it is for those not based on preexisting works.
If your photo meets the definition of a derivative work, it must be
registered for full statutory protection. If the photo only is slightly
modified and does not qualify as a derivative work, then the original
registration covers the work.

In the case cited above, since the photograph of the wheels may be
considered original and copyrightable itself, adding it to the original
photograph probably makes it a new work. For the most protection,
registering the new work is the safest bet.

Take my advice; get professional help.

PhotoAttorney

Copyright 2005 Carolyn E. Wright All Rights Reserved

— ABOUT THE AUTHOR —

Carolyn E. Wright, Esq., has a unique legal practice aimed squarely at
the needs of photographers. A pro photographer herself, Carolyn has
the credentials and the experience to protect photographers. She’s
represented clients in multimillion dollar litigations, but also has the
desire to help new photographers just starting their careers. Carolyn
graduated from Emory University School of Law with a Juris Doctor, and
from Tennessee Tech Univ. with a Masters of Business Administration
degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in music.

She wrote the book on photography law. “88 Secrets to the Law for
Photographers,” by Carolyn and well-known professional photographer,
Scott Bourne, is scheduled for fall 2005 release by Olympic Mountain
School Press. Carolyn also is a columnist for PhotoFocus Magazine.

Carolyn specializes in wildlife photography and her legal website is
http://www.photoattorney.com

“More than any other time in history, mankind face a crossroad. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, and the other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” - Woody Allen (Side Effect)

Is it possible to live a fear-free and worry-free life with what is happening around us? That is the one million-dollar question I have often found people asking me. We all face so much fear in life, both the poor and the rich. You will be surprise to note that the rich also cry.

Fear is the very natural and normal response to the challenges we face in life. Fear tells us that there is something we must be cautious about. It puts us on alert and tells us there is something we must be prepared for. We face so many fears in life: fear of change, fear of the unknown and fear of rejection, amongst others. But the single greatest obstacle to success in adult life is fear of failure.

The average person starts out in life with very few negative emotions. As he goes through life, negative emotions begin to accumulate like souvenirs. It is impossible for us to realise our full potential unless we leave our negative emotions behind. And there is one negative emotion that seems to be endemic to our society: ‘worry’. Worry is a sustained form of fear caused by indecision. This means that as soon as we make a decision to act in any worrisome situation; fear, tension and stress begin to diminish.

But how do we conquer fears and worries? One of the best ways to conquer fear is to face it. If we face fears and worries we ’step up’, but when we run away from it we ’step off’ from the race of life.

In self-development seminars we are told that when faced with worry we should apply the master method, which is one of the most powerful methods of dealing with fear. First of all, define very clearly what you’re worrying about. The second step is to ask yourself ‘what is the worst possible outcome of the situation?’ The third step is to resolve to accept the worst, should it, and the final step is to do everything humanly possible to make sure that the worst does not happen.

But my mother has a different approach on how to conquer fears and worries. Hers is spiritual. She asks me to go into my Bible and recite the Psalms. Anytime I am confronted with fears and worries, Psalms have a way of comforting me. They give me confidence that if I entrust Him with my fears and worries, He will take care of it because He never fails.

Dayo Olomu is a UK-based Motivational Speaker, Writer, Business/Life Coach, Trainer, Media Entrepreneur and Competent Toastmaster. His core belief is that we are all endowed with seeds of greatness, and his mission is to help individuals and organisations achieve their full potentials. He is the author of best selling “4 Indispensable Strategies for Success” and the President of Croydon Communicators Toastmasters. Get his FREE monthly Rise to the Top ezine by sending a blank email to subscribe@dayoolomu.com or visit his website at: www.dayoolomu.com